all so we could call ourselves safe
by TolkienGirl
Summary: Fifty views of Hawkins. [One-word prompts, fifty sentences. Ensemble cast and canon pairings.]


**1\. Sometimes**

It isn't like anyone is going to come up and punch him in the head and say, "Not over her yet, are you, Harrington?"—and he certainly, definitely, absolutely doesn't wish that anyone _would_.

 **2\. Believe**

Mike knows she's out there, even if it's the only thing he knows.

 **3\. Gratitude**

The gaping, oozing grin that splits two worlds apart is in front of them, but her hand in his brings him back to a hospital room where the world didn't fit back together again.

 **4\. Love**

It doesn't matter if the mashed potatoes are runny, not in the Byers house.

 **5\. Music**

Will's pupils blown out, light and darkness, hard to know what he's seeing—Jonathan cranks the speaker _up_.

 **6\. Trust**

The scars on their palms are enough to keep them together, even when they decide to be apart.

 **7\. Tradition**

"Why is Mike the dungeon-master?" Steve asks, and Dustin looks at him like he's just dropped an F-bomb at Thanksgiving dinner.

 **8\. Snow**

Silver winks on the gym floor (pretty), and they move slowly, slowly, so that the dance will never be over.

 **9\. Hope**

Joyce swears she'll tear the whole house down before she gives God and Lonnie the satisfaction of giving up on her boy.

 **10\. White**

"You were gonna be a ghost?" Mike grins, and then—"We were the Ghostbusters. But we'd never have busted _you_."

 **11\. Adorable**

All her children are big-eyed and quiet and grown too fast; Karen presses Holly close.

 **12\. Pattern**

Hard not to play it back, _like we're in love, you don't love me, it's bullshit_ , when it's beating in his chest like it belongs there.

 **13\. Red**

Lucas thinks that Max's hair looks like a bonfire, and he just needs to find the right way to tell her so she knows he loves it.

 **14\. Dance**

"Music's loud." Hop growls, in the parking lot, and then, before he can lose his nerve, "Wanna give it a whirl?" (Joyce lights up).

 **15\. Captive**

Will hates how it always takes him.

 **16\. Watch**

"You like that, kid?" When El— _Jane_ —doesn't answer, turning the heavy metal over and over in her hands, he adds, "It was my old man's."

 **17\. Flee**

Will always tells them when to run.

 **18\. Alarm**

At Christmas, one of the tree-bulbs fritzes out with a sizzle—and Joyce's heart skips a beat.

 **19\. Dying**

Barb should have gone home, Nancy murmurs, against a damp pillow. She should have gone home.

 **20\. Fan**

The Hendersons don't have AC, and Tews chewed the cord of the box fan, and Dustin misses Mews, even just a little (or a lot).

 **21\. Seek**

If only Papa hadn't made her reach out and touch it.

 **22\. Past**

Yeah, Lucas can admit—girls used to be gross, but then…

 **23\. Short**

When the kids ask about growth spurts, Steve just looks down on them and lies that he's always been this tall.

 **24\. Reflection**

Nancy cuts her hair because she's tired of looking back at the same girl every goddamn day.

 **25\. Coffee**

"Bitter," El says grimly, brow scrunching up, and Hopper laughs. "Told you not to snitch from me."

 **26\. Sun**

In the summer, it's so much easier not to be afraid of the dark.

 **27\. Breathtaking**

Steve always thought he couldn't breathe when Nancy looked _right at him_ , but breathing doesn't get any easier when she's gone.

 **28\. Movie**

"Back…to the _future_?" El frowns. "How does that make any sense?"

 **29\. Hands**

Jonathan just wants Nancy to say, _hold me_ , and sometimes, sometimes, she does.

 **30\. Laugh**

The first time they let her come over for a D&D campaign, Max's ribs hurt afterwards in a _good_ way.

 **31\. Honesty**

Nancy doesn't know how to tell the truth without cutting herself or someone else open.

 **32\. Home**

The first night back in the cabin, El doesn't even dream.

 **33\. Travel**

"I know NYU is a long way away," Jonathan starts, but Mom doesn't even let him finish—"It's what you've always wanted," she says, and her eyes and tone brook no argument.

 **34\. Water**

Strange how floating can weigh you down, down, down.

 **35\. Two**

Lonnie left the old car, and the leak in the roof, and the debt, and the boys (the boys are all that matter).

 **36\. Wonderful**

"Guess we're like brothers now," Dustin says, and what the hell else is Steve supposed to say but, "Guess we are."

 **37\. Beauty**

Looking into Mike's eyes (and knowing that he's looking into hers) is all she wants to do, forever and ever.

 **38\. Blessing**

"We say grace in this family, now," Karen orders tightly, and Nancy wants to ask, _What kind of mid-life crisis, Mom?_ —but she doesn't.

 **39\. Warm**

El likes campfires. They didn't ruin those in the Lab.

 **40\. Chocolate**

Nougat sticks a little in Dustin's throat, now, so he's turned his attention to Reese's—that can't go wrong, right?

 **41\. Blanket**

Mike left it the same, for those three-hundred-and-fifty-three days, just in case she needed it (or maybe because _he_ did).

 **42\. Stars**

"That's the Swan," Jonathan whispers, "And Cassiopeia." Nancy almost asks which one is the lucky star, but then she doesn't, because she knows that no lucky star exists.

 **43\. Darkness**

Will waits until everyone else has disappeared, and then he tells Eleven, "I don't think he's gone. Just—trapped." He hates that she nods.

 **44\. Light**

"It's a lava lamp," Mike explains, to an unrelenting Hopper. "It's cool, and she wants one, and it's non-hazardous."

"We'll see, kid."

 **45\. Simple**

"I love you," Steve said, over and over, and it really did seem like enough.

 **46\. Past**

Joyce doesn't know, exactly, why she never chooses Hopper. She needs to get on that.

 **47\. Fall**

"I freaking hate this season," Dustin observes gloomily, as the leaves crunch under their wheels, because hey, annual interdimensional bullshit will do that to you.

 **48\. Blue**

"Is it…" El smooths down her skirt…"Your favorite color?" And Mike just says, "It is now."

 **49\. Eyes**

"We've all seen it." Hop sighs, stubs out his cigarette, blows away the twirling ghost of smoke. "That's why we believe."

 **50\. Sadness**

"We're fine, aren't we? Even after all this, we're fine."


End file.
